The present invention relates to apparatus for manipulating webs of flexible material, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for convoluting webs (especially photographic material such as photographic films or photographic paper) onto rotary cores. For example, the apparatus of the present invention can be utilized to convolute a web of photographic paper or the like onto the core of a reel which is confined in the interior of a lighttightly sealed cassette or another container.
It is already known to provide a cassette with a web-admitting elongated guide member which is pivotally installed in the interior of the cassette and whose outlet portion extends substantially tangentially of the rotary core which constitutes or forms part of a takeup reel for photographic paper or other web-like photosensitive material. It is desirable to provide such apparatus with a mechanism which can catch the leader of a web without losses in or damage to the material of the web and thereupon causes the leader to orbit around the axis of the core so that the web is convoluted onto the peripheral surface of the core. It is also desirable to construct the catcher mechanism in such a way that the leader of a web can be introduced with a minimum of effort and within a short interval of time so that the convoluting operation can proceed with a minimum of delay. German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,445,998 discloses an apparatus which comprises means for attaching the leader of a web to a rotary core. To this end, the pivotable guide member is mounted in the cassette in the aforedescribed manner and its outlet is positioned to direct the foremost part of the leader of a web into one of the spaces between radially extending spokes at the periphery of the core. The spokes are coated with a friction generating material which insures that the leader is entrained by the rotating core when its foremost part extends into the space between two neighboring spokes. A drawback of such apparatus is that the core is rather expensive because it must be provided with spokes and that the spokes must be coated with friction generating material. Furthermore, the mechanism for effecting and controlling the movements of the pivotable guide member is complex and expensive.